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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant thumbprinted
and secured. "Ten. What did I tell you? We'll have to do something about that
infiltrator, if it's still hanging around Base Eight space when we're back
there. We'll strike hard, and strike fast. One ship shouldn't be so hard to
beat, not with our advantage, the Slime Ball."
"I'm not convinced that unit will be of help for much longer," Mirina said,
uneasily. It had been getting steadily weaker over the last couple of years.
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It needed to be fixed, and none of them had the remotest idea how it worked.
Only blind chance had led his engineers to discover what it was all those
years ago when they took it off the Slime ship. Only sheerest coincidence had
allowed them to install the three Balls in reiver ships and gotten them to
work without blowing up. Bisman relied too heavily on it, and that concerned
Mirina. Their operation shouldn't turn on a single piece of equipment. She'd
said so for years.
"It'll be fine. You worry too much," Bisman said, flicking the card between
his fingertips.
Zonzalo tried to add a touch of optimism. "We'll probably hear an update from
Autumn as we head back in that direction. Another message is probably on its
way now. I'm sure they destroyed that ship. It was only one, and we have three
on that base."
"Right," said Bisman, grabbing Mirina's arm and leading the way toward the
ship. "In the meantime, we've got a delivery for the Thelerie. Don't you like
being thought of as a goddess? Bringing aid from the heavens to bring wings to
the winged?"
Mirina lay in a bunk in the guest cave and listened to the echoes far down the
hall.
Bisman and his old cronies had decided to make a night of it in the
settlement, and dragged Zonzalo and Sunset along for fun. No matter how hard
she pressed to keep the youngsters on the ship, Bisman countered her every
argument. He couldn't see any good reason for sequestering them on his home
planet. At least he didn't insist on taking them off on strange ports. Mirina
was responsible for Zonzalo, and she felt responsible for Sunset. He was the
most gormless, innocent creature she'd ever shipped with, even more so than
any other Thelerie. He hadn't a guileful cell in his body, and he took
everything his precious humans said as the mathematical truth.
Stars knew what a less moral band of humans might have done with him.
Moral, hah!
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
It had been eight years since she'd shipped on with Bisman. Eight, long,
damned years. When she had paired with Charles on the CM-702, she'd only kept
in touch in a sporadic fashion with Zonzalo. She was sorry now. She should
have been more of an influence in his upbringing, taking more of the role of
their deceased parents, instead of trusting it to boarding school counselors.
But brainships were on almost constant duty in Exploration. Mirina couldn't
get free just to mediate a grades dispute or a behavior violation for her
brother. Sometimes she didn't even hear about problems until months after they
had occurred. She'd failed in her parenting, and that still bothered her.
Not long after Charles died she got a message that Zonzalo had left school and
fallen in with Bisman. She hadn't liked the sound of the man at all. Anyone
with charm and perseverance could gain influence over her poor, silly,
gullible brother, who was still looking for a strong role model to fashion
himself after. In this case it could get him killed. Zonzalo hinted
deliciously of danger and secret raids accomplished in a fast scout ship.
Mirina knew she'd have to go and get her brother away from that crowd.
He was the only family she had.
With the reputation of jinx riding her, Mirina couldn't get anyone to help her
ship out to find him, nor even get a full hearing on the subject. The
authorities paid little attention to a troubled woman babbling about a distant
brother and malign influences.
The counseling they had given her after Charles' death was inadequate, as if
her emotional recovery was of secondary importance to the enormous catastrophe
of the death of a brainship. It seemed that no one cared at all about her. She
resented that her supervisor in Exploration hadn't intervened more closely in
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getting her another berth
any berth when it would have done wonders for her sanity, not to mention
her patriotism. Mirina felt that Central Worlds had let her down at every
single opportunity. Refusing to untangle the red tape to help her find Zonzalo
was the last crumb that upset the scale. Never mind that she thought her
brother was in the hands of pirates, and CW might be able to solve robberies
in that sector. The official budget wasn't set up to handle "freelance"
missions, her boss had said. Then he'd mined her file with false complaints of
insubordination, so when she went over his head for help, no one would listen
to her. She left, cursing Central Worlds and all bureaucracy. Now and forever
more, she was on her own.
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
It took every last credit she had to charter a scout craft to Zonzalo's last
known location. Lucky thing it was a base the pirates used all the time. She
hadn't intended to stay once she had rescued her brother, but face-to-face,
the pirates were a truly pathetic lot. Their equipment was a hundred years
outdated, but even bad equipment will work if maintained. Their diet was so
unbalanced that crew members were going down sick with fragile-bone disease
and scurvy, even the ones who weighed 160
kilos. Mirina needed so badly to be needed that when Zonzalo and a younger,
much handsomer Aldon Bisman pressed her to stay, she did. Central Worlds had
rejected her, but these people wanted her. They'd pay her anything she asked,
just to stay. At the time the offer was hard to resist.
It took two years before she had them whipped into a kind of military order
that preserved resources and actually allowed them to build their network
outward. She was a good organizer, but for eight years now, it seemed, she'd
operated on autopilot.
She found it harder every day to break away. The activity kept her from
thinking too hard about where she had come from, about Charles, and the
horrifying accident that killed him, and what she was doing.
At long last Minna was thinking again. She needed to take Zonzalo and leave,
cease aiding and abetting criminals. She had become one herself. Little
niggles and twinges from her conscience told her that she still owed something
to Central Worlds. Even after all the wrong CW had done her, she'd never have
met Charles and shipped with him if it wasn't for the brainship program. He
had been the single most wonderful thing in her life. An old-fashioned but
worldly gentleman, Charles himself would have said it was Minna's duty to turn
herself and the others in, and he'd be right. She shouldn't be here. Not that
she ought to try and return to the brain/brawn program: she couldn't. She
couldn't even go back to the Central Worlds and try to fit into the
mainstream. No job would be safe for her. The authorities undoubtedly had a
criminal file on her that would cover a small continent, and she would rather
die of torture than be locked up ground-side. The Don family would have to
ship out on their own, skipping from remote outpost to remote outpost forever.
Again the sensation of desperate lack of belonging rose out of her belly and
clutched her throat until she gasped, sobbing. Mirina sat up in bed and braced
herself, elbows akimbo with hands on her knees, just breathing. She was doing
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